Extracts  from  the 

»» 

GRAND  JURY  CHARGE 

of 

HON.  WALTER  B.  JONES 

Judge  Fifteenth  Judicial  Circuit 
Montgomery,  Alabama 
July  Term,  1923 


Montgomery,  Ala. 
THE  PARAGON  PRESS 
1923 


Extracts  from  the 
GRAND  JURY  CHARGE 

of 

HON.  WALTER  B.  JONES 

A 

Judge  Jones,  after  explaining  to  the  grand  jurors  the 
nature  and  extent  of  their  duties  and  the  importance  of 
their  office,  said : 

And  now,  speaking  to  you  as  a  channel  of  communication 
between  the  bench  and  our  people,  may  I  not  trespass  on 
your  time  long  enough  to  call  your  attention,  briefly,  to 
an  old  proverb  and  to  point  out  where,  in.  my  judgment,  we 
have  of  recent  years  departed  from  its  sound  advice. 

REMEMBER  THE  ANCIENT  LANDMARKS. 

The  wise  maxim  I  refer  to  is  found  in  the  Book  of  Pro¬ 
verbs,  and  there  the  admonition  is  given :  Remove  not  the 
ancient  landmark,  which  thy  fathers  have  set.  And  II 
want  to  direct  your  attention  for  a  few  minutes  to  one  or 
two  ancient  landmarks  which  our  fathers  of  old  time  did 
set,  and  which  are  today  being  unsettled. 

I  trust  you  will  not  get  the  impression  from  anything 
said  here  today  that  I  believe  the  country  is  “going  to  the 
dogs,”  or  that  I  think  its  condition  is  such  as  to  make  us 
lose  sleep  because  such  is  not  the  case.  But  I  do  feel 
that  there  are  some  conditions  which  deserve  the  serious 
consideration  of  thoughtful  citizens,  and  to  which  your  at¬ 
tention  might  be  called  with  profit  at  this  time.  Certain¬ 
ly,  it  is  not  improper  for  a  judge  in  charging  a  grand  jury 
of  his  fellow  citizens,  to  “whip  the  boundaries”  of  their 
inheritance  a  little. 

AN  OLD  ENGLISH  CUSTOM. 

There  was  once  an  old  custom  in  England,  back  in  the 
Anglo-Saxon  days  when  maps  were  rare,  called  “beating 
the  bounds.”  When  a  person  sold  a  piece  of  land  it  was 
the  custom  for  the  seller  to  show  the  buyer  over  the  prop¬ 
erty,  and  to  point  out  the  corners  and  marks  by  which  it 


587782 


was  bounded.  In  doing  so,  several  small  boys  were  taken 
along  and  shown  the  boundary  markers  or  stones,  and 
sometimes  the  boys  were  whipped  or  even  violently  bumped 
on  the  boundary  stones  to  make  them  remember.  The  pur¬ 
pose  of  taking  the  boys  along  was  to  insure  that  witnesses 
to  the  boundaries  should  survive  as  long  as  possible.  That 
custom  has  not  prevailed  in  this  country  and  we  do  not 
mark  off  land  that  way,  but,  much  more  important,  there 
are  in  our  country  “ancient  landmarks/’  principles  of  gov¬ 
ernment  and  ideals  which  were  established  of  old  by  the 
sacrifices  and  struggles  of  our  fathers  and  from  which  we 
should  not  depart,  but  which  should  always  abide  with  us. 
In  other  words,  the  boundaries  must  be  whipped  now  and 
then  to  keep  us  from  forgetting  these  old  landmarks. 

LANDMARKS  THAT  ARE  THREATENED. 

As  I  look  back  upon  the  history  of  our  country  and  recall 
the  events  which  have  taken  place  within  the  memory 
of  those  who  sit  here,  I  am  mournfully  impressed  by  the 
fact  that  the  heaviest  legislative  and  other  guns  of  this 
period  have  been  trained  upon  three  of  the  ancient  land¬ 
marks  most  venerated  by  our  forebears,  landmarks  whose 
maintenance  means,  the  safety  and  happiness  of  our  people, 
whose  destruction  means  insecurity  and  misery.  Those  in 
America  who  stand  today  for  the  maintenance  of  a  repre¬ 
sentative  government  such  as  our  fathers  planned,  are  real¬ 
ly  defenders  of  a  beleaguered  fortress,  a  fortress  surround¬ 
ed  by  enemies  who  never  sleep. 

The  ancient  landmarks  which  I  have  in  mind,  particu¬ 
larly  at  this  time,  are  three  principles  of  our  forefathers: 
personal  liberty,  local  self-government,  and  no  state  inter¬ 
ference  with  the  private  concerns  of  the  indvdual. 

WHAT  IS  PERSONAL  LIBERTY. 

By  personal  liberty  I  do  not  mean  the  right  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  citizen  to  do  whatever  he  pleases,  regardless  of  how 
his  actions  affect  his  neighbor.  I  do  not  mean  the  right 
of  unrestrained  action,  limited  only  by  the  will  of  the  per¬ 
son  acting.  That  is  not  the  kind  of  liberty  we  recognize 
in  America.  But  I  do  mean  freedom  of  action,  the  right 
of  a  man  to  do  that  which  is  not  morally  wrong,  and  does 
not  interfere  with  the  equal  rights  of  his  fellow-man.  The 
personal  liberty  that  is  in  my  mind  is  the  inherent  right  of 
the  citizen  to  the  utmost  freedom  in  the  expression  of  his 

(4) 


Southern  Pamphlets 
Rare  Book  Collectio® 
UNC-Chapel  H1U 


opinions,  the  management  of  his  property,  the  pursuit  of 
the  ordinary  callings  of  life,  and  the  conduct  of  his  private 
affairs  that  is  consistent  with  the  maintenance  of  justice 
and  public  order.  I  mean  something  more  than  freedom 
from  mere  physical  restraint  or  imprisonment ;  I  mean  that 
the  citizen  has  a  right  to  follow  such  pursuits  as  may  be 
best  adopted  to  his  faculties  and  which  will  add  to  his  hap¬ 
piness.  I  mean  the  right  of  the  citizen  in  all  lawful  ways 
to  live  and  work  where  and  how  he  will,  to  earn  his  liveli¬ 
hood  in  any  lawful  calling,  and  to  pursue  any  lawful  trade 
or  avocation. 

Law-makers,  both  State  and  National,  of  late  years 
seem  to  have  had  little  respect  for  this  ancient  landmark. 
They  have  been  too  busy  developing  a  paternal  govern¬ 
ment  that  is  about  to  crush  out  all  individual  liberty,  and 
which  has  little  regard  to  some  of  the  fundamental  rights 
of  the  citizen.  The  flood  of  laws  regulating  the  private 
and  domestic  affairs  of  the  citizen  is  shaking  to  its  depths 
the  foundations  of  that  venerable  principle  of  personal  lib¬ 
erty.  We  are  burdened  and  harassed  in  this  country  today 
by  governmental  censorship,  regulation  and  interference 
with  private  concerns. 

INDIVIDUAL  HAS  SOME  RIGHTS. 

In  times  long  past  our  forefathers,  remembering  the 
teachings  of  history,  set  up  the  landmark  of  individual 
rights.  They  held  that  the  true  purpose  of  government 
was  to  encourage  the  people  to  rely  on  their  own  initiative 
and  their  own  energy,  and  to  protect  them  in  the  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  their  property  and  their  right  to  administer  their 
own  affairs.  They  held  that  the  individual  citizen  would 
be  happiest  and  could  best  work  out  his  own  destiny  under 
a  government  of  few  and  simple  laws,  none  of  which 
should  interfere  with  his  religion,  his  amusements  or  his 
opinions.  They  held,  these  old-fashioned  statesmen  of 
blessed  memory,  that  the  government  was  based  on  the 
consent  of  the  people,  founded  on  their  authority,  and  in¬ 
stituted  for  their  benefit.  They  wrote  it  in  the  constitu¬ 
tion  that  the  sole  object  and  only  legitimate  end  of  govern¬ 
ment  is  to  protect  the  citizen  in  the  enjoyment  of  life, 
liberty  and  property ;  and  it  has  been  thundered  down  to 
us  from  the  earliest  days  that  when  the  government  as¬ 
sumes  other  functions  it  is  usurpation  and  oppression. 


(5) 


LAWS  CAN  NOT  CURE  ALL  EVILS. 

But  that  old-fashioned  doctrine  is  fast  being  thrown 
overboard,  and  the  people  are  permitting  their  present 
governmental  pilots  to  steer  the  ship  of  state  out  of  its 
old  and  safe  channels  and  onto  the  rocks  and  shoals  of  ex¬ 
perimental  and  unsound  legislation  and  statutory  panaceas 
for  all  ills.  Too  many  of  our  people,  and  certainly  too 
many  in  the  law-making  department  of  the  government, 
are  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  the  law  is  simply  a  club 
which  the  State  should  use  to  hamper  and  restrain  the 
innocent  activities  and  simple  pleasures  of  the  people.  We 
have  said  that  a  man  has  inalienable  right  to  life,  liber¬ 
ty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  and  yet  these  inalienable 
rights  have  been  recently  so  circumscribed  that  it  is  im¬ 
possible  to  locate  them  with  a  microscope. 

Only  the  other  day  an  editorial  writer  called  attention 
to  the  statement  of  a  distinguished  psychologist  who  said 
that  a  certain  legislative  body  produced  nine  thousand  bills, 
but  that  upon  applying  his  brain-scope  he  found  that  the 
membership  collectively  possessed  only  eight  and  one-half 
ideas  on  all  subjects. 

Legislation  is  regarded  by  many  as  a  sure  remedy  for 
all  ills  of  the  body  politic  and  many  believe  that  the  mill- 
enium  can  best  be  hastened  by  laws  extending  the  author¬ 
ity  of  the  government,  particularly  the  federal  govern¬ 
ment,  over  the  private  lives  and  affairs  of  the  citizen.  And 
if  one  law  fails,  they  simply  cry  out  for  more  law.  They 
little  realize  that  statutes  can  not  make  men  honest  and 
good;  and  that  the  law  can  not  Daedalian-like  affix  wings 
on  the  backs  of  citizens  and  assure  them  a  comfortable  and 
safe  passage  to  Heaven. 

Vice-president  Coolidge  has  aptly  said :  “The  attempt  to 
dragoon  the  body  when  the  need  is  to  convince  the  soul 
will  end  only  in  revolt.” 

And  Professor  Roscoe  Pound  reminds  us  that  in  the  Sev¬ 
enteenth  Century  an  undue  insistence  upon  the  interests 
of  the  sovereign  defeated  the  moral  and  social  life  of  the 
individual,  and  finally  required  the  assertion  of  individual 
interests  in  bills  of  rights  and  declarations  of  rights.  And 
so  today  there  is  a  like  danger  that  certain  social  and  gov¬ 
ernmental  interests  will  be  unduly  emphasized,  and  that 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  citizens  will  be  greatly 
abridged  by  a  paternal  government. 


(6) 


GOVERNMENT  IS  FOR  BENEFIT  OF  CITIZEN. 

The  idea  is  becoming  too  prevalent  and  too  strongly 
intrenched  in  this  country  that  the  individual  citizen  exists 
merely  to  support  a  strong  centralized  government.  Peo¬ 
ple  seemingly  forget  that  this  government  of  the  people 
and  for  the  people  was  instituted  by  the  people  for  the 
benefit  of  every  citizen  alike,  and  that  he  was  not  created 
nor  does  he  live  to  be  used  solely  as  a  pawn  by  government 
and  politician.  The  government  was  instituted  for  his 
benefit,  he  bears  its  burdens,  he  suffers  for  its  mistakes, 
and  it  is  his  government.  Let  us  not  forget  that  all  the 
progress  that  has  ever  been  made  by  mankind  has  come 
about  from  the  efforts  of  the  people  to  emancipate  them¬ 
selves  from  the  bondage  and  thralldom  of  governmental 
regulation  and  control  of  private  affairs. 

PEOPLE  ARE  AFFLICTED  WITH  BURDENSOME 

TAXATION. 

The  inquisitive  and  officious  intermeddling  by  attempted 
governmental  action  in  all  the  affairs  of  the  people  is  put¬ 
ting  in  the  hearts  of  good  men  and  good  citizens  a  spirit 
of  disgust  and  disappointment,  if  not  of  contempt  for  the 
law.  Law-making  bodies  all  over  the  country  are  setting 
up  too  many  false  and  absurd  standards  for  the  private 
conduct  of  the  citizen,  and  the  plain,  every-day  man,  the 
back-bone  of  the  government,  is  getting  sick  and  tired  of 
it  all. 

He  feels,  and  very  rightly  so,  that  he  is  over-governed, 
over-regulated  and  over-taxed.  He  feels  the  hand  of  the 
government  on  his  actions  and  in  his  business  at  every 
turn.  He  wants  to  be  let  alone,  he  wants  a  breathing 
spell  for  awhile.  He  longs  for  the  halcyon  days  of  old 
when  his  representatives  in  the  government  remembered 
him  as  a  man  to  be  represented  honestly  and  fearlessly, 
and  as  a  man,  who,  however  humble  his  lot  might  be,  was 
possessed  of  some  personal  rights,  rights  which  were  as 
sacred  as  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  and  whose  invasion 
would  bring  swift  and  sure  the  punishment  of  Uzzah  to 
all  who  laid  profane  hands  upon  them. 

FIFTY-SEVEN  VARIETIES  OF  TAXES. 

The  citizen  wishes  his  representatives  would  cease  to 
regard  him,  in  one  aspect,  as  a  little  child  to  be  cajoled 
and  toyed  with  and,  in  another,  as  an  ever  plentiful  and 


(7) 


never  diminishing  source  of  revenue.  His  representatives 
may  not  always  remember  him,  but  they  are  certain  to 
recall  him  and  his  little  worldly  possessions  when  the 
time  for  the  imposition  of  taxes  comes. 

We  have  in  this  country  a  certin  very  old  business 
which  has  long  and  widely  advertised  its  “Famous  57 
Varieties.”  But  that  figure  would  hardly  be  sufficient  to¬ 
day  to  cover  the  great  number  of  taxes  which  consume  the 
substance  of  the  citizen  and  afflict  air  his  hours.  Verily, 
it  is 

Taxes  to  right  of  them, 

Taxes  to  left  of  them, 

Taxes  in  front  of  them, 

Taxes  behind  them. 

There  are  property  taxes,  license  taxes,  poll  taxes,  gaso¬ 
line  taxes,  mortgage  taxes,  trial  taxes,  income  taxes,  war 
taxes,  inheritance  taxes,  estate  taxes,  stamp  taxes,  nor¬ 
mal  taxes,  sur-taxes,  excess  profits  taxes,  beverage  taxes, 
tobacco  taxes,  custom  taxes,  severance  taxes,  paving  taxes, 
three  mill  taxes,  excise  taxes,  corporation  taxes,  privilege 
taxes,  franchise  taxes,  amusement  taxes,  road  taxes,  and 
so  on  down  the  line  without  end.  And  each  year  finds 
our  Argus-eyed  representatives  searching  with  unwearied 
zeal  and  diabolical  ingenuity  for  new  and  additional  taxes 
and  subjects  of  taxation. 

The  citizen  has  been  patient  and  long-suffering  under 
it  all,  but  the  day  is  not  far  distant  when  he  and  his  out¬ 
raged  fellows  will  rise  in  all  their  might  and  power,  and 
drive  from  the  public  temples  and  legislative  halls  those 
who  have  no  true  conception  of  the  sanctity  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  rights,  but  regard  the  citizen  simply  as  a  revenue 
producing  goose. 

MORE  LOCAL  SELF-GOVERNMENT  NEEDED. 

Another  landmark,  greatly  venerated  and  respected  by 
our  forefathers,  has  been  hammered  and  chiseled  so  much 
by  law-makers  that  it  can  hardly  be  located  at  all.  I  re¬ 
fer  to  the  principle  of  local  self-government  and  home  rule. 
In  the  old  days  of  our  forefathers,  whom  I  believe  were  di¬ 
vinely  inspired,  and  certainly  who  were  thoughtful  and  ob¬ 
servant  students  of  history,  held  that  home  rule  was  the 
only  true  safeguard  for  life  and  property.  They  held  that 
the  separate  states  of  this  Union  should  be  sovereign,  in¬ 
dependent  and  free  to  regulate  their  own  internal  affairs 


(8) 


according  to  the  will  of  their  own  people,  and  to  the  main¬ 
tenance  of  this  great  principle  they  pledged  their  honor, 
devoted  their  lives  and  expended  their  fortunes. 

FEDERAL  POWER  EXTENDED  TOO  FAR. 

But  that  old-fashioned  doctrine  is  fast  fading  away,  and 
there  has  been  a  very  distressing  trend  both  in  the  or¬ 
ganic  law  and  in  legislation  to  take  from  “the  people  of 
the  several  states,  and  from  their  legislatures  and  courts, 
jurisdiction  over  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  them¬ 
selves  and  their  own  citizens. ”  Today  there  is  more  and 
more  centralization  and  the  tendency  is  to  give  the  Na¬ 
tional  government  almost  unlimited  authority  and  power 
to  make  laws.  The  authority  of  the  states  is  being  en¬ 
croached  upon  more  and  more,  and  National  legislation 
has  been  very  broadly  extended  for  the  purpose  of  promot¬ 
ing  the  general  welfare.  Additional  authority  has  been 
delegated  to  Congress  by  recent  constitutional  amendments 
and  the  former  grants  have  been  liberally  construed  so  as 
to  extend  legislation  into  new  fields.  “This,”  as  has  been 
pointed  out,  “has  run  its  course  from  the  interstate  com¬ 
merce  act  of  the  late  80’s,  down  to  the  maternity  aid  law 
which  recently  went  into  effect.  Much  of  this  has  been 
accompanied  by  the  establishment  of  various  commissions 
and  boards,  often  clothed  with  much  delegated  power,  and 
providing  those  already  in  existence  with  new  and  addi¬ 
tional  authority.  The  National  Government  has  extended 
the  scope  of  its  legislation  to  include  many  kinds  of  reg¬ 
ulation,  the  determination  of  traffic  rates,  hours  of  labor, 
sumptuary  laws,  and  into  the  domain  of  oversight  of  the 
public  morals.” 

I  regret  to  say  that  even  in  our  own  Southland,  the 
home  of  history’s  greatest  soldier,  who  gave  his  all  that 
the  autonomy  of  the  states  might  be  preserved  inviolate 
and  home  rule  not  perish  from  the  land  of  our  fathers, 
there  are  those  who  ridicule  the  ability  and  capacity  of  the 
citizenship  of  the  state  to  mind  their  own  local  affairs 
without  foreign  guardianship  or  interference;  who  point  to 
every  illegal  sale  of  intoxicants,  every  bum  without  power 
or  desire  to  be  sober,  every  failure  of  a  state  to  confer 
universal  suffrage,  every  bad  road,  every  epidemic  of  dis¬ 
ease,  as  sufficient  reasons  for  the  practical  abolition  of  the 
states  and  for  the  interference  of  the  government  at  Wash¬ 
ington. 


(9) 


STRETCHES  OF  FEDERAL  POWER. 


Senator  Charles  S.  Thomas  of  Colorado,  in  a  masterly 
address  before  the  American  Bar  Association  in  1921, 
pointed  out  these  invasions  of  the  state  authority  and 
stretches  of  Federal  power,  when  he  said: 

“To  enumerate  all  legislative  encroachments  would  be 
a  difficult  task.  It  will  suffice  to  remind  you  that  the 
federal  government  among  other  activities,  through  its 
multiplying  bureaus  and  commissions,  now  exercises  jur¬ 
isdiction  over  all  the  waters  of  the  country,  navigable  or 
otherwise,  determines  the  manner  of  their  diversion  and 
the  development  of  their  hydroelectric  energies,  largely 
controls  all  commerce  within  as  among  the  states,  regu¬ 
lar  s  business  and  manufacturing  concerns,  determines  the 
age  of  workmen  to  be  employed  in  manufacturing  indus¬ 
tries,  regulates  their  sanitation,  has  charge  of  the  public 
health,  directs  the  development  of  agriculture  and  the  con¬ 
ditions  of  labor,  undertakes  to  promote  and  if  possible  to 
create  markets  for  farm  products,  limits  or  prohibits  is¬ 
sues  of  securities  by  many  private  corporations  and  en¬ 
terprise  creates  private  corporations  by  special  enact¬ 
ment,  has  constructed  and  will  eventually  operate  a  vast 
merchant  marine,  has  become  the  most  extensive  landlord 
in  the  world,  prescribing  its  own  laws  for  its  tenantry,  and 
wholly  independent  of  the  states  wherein  its  domains  are 
located,  enforces  public  virtue  by  resolving  prostitution  in¬ 
to  a  subject  of  commerce,  directs  and  finances  the  construc¬ 
tion  of  highways  with  no  concern  as  to  their  utility  for 
post  roads,  assumes  to  guard  and  enforce  the  morals  and 
habits  of  the  people,  prescribes  regulations  for  and  im¬ 
poses  licenses  upon  the  medical  profession,  investigates  and 
prescribes  terms  of  adjustment  of  local  industrial  contro¬ 
versies,  has  assumed  control  over  the  functions  of  mater¬ 
nity,  constantly  encroaches  upon  the  domain  of  the  state 
police  power,  and  has  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  its  courts 
over  the  entire  domain  of  human  controversy.  It  will  soon 
assume  the  task  of  general  education. 

“These  and  other  innovations  have  been  made  upon  the 
initiative  or  with  the  encouragement  of  the  people.  Their 
primary  motive  has  been  to  limit  commercial  activities 
supposedly  menacing  the  rights  of  the  individual,  to  escape 
the  burden  of  expense  accompanying  the  exercise  of  state 
prerogatives  or  to  promote  the  liberal  local  expenditure  of 
federal  money.  Shirking  responsibilities  requiring  outlay  by 


(10) 


shifting  both  to  broader  shoulders,  and  obtaining  public 
money  for  local  consumption,  have  prompted  states  to  sub¬ 
mit  if  not  to  welcome  encroachments  upon  their  powers, 
to  neglect  their  duties  and  to  ignore  consequences.  The 
fiction  that  the  obligations  will  be  cheerfully  borne  by  the 
larger  authority  at  its  own  expense,  and  that  undue  results 
will  be  carefully  provided  against  by  that  authority  is  a 
pleasing  one,  but  it  betrays  a  declining  estimate  of  the  es¬ 
sential  virtues  of  local  self-government.  Relief  from  civic 
responsibility  weakens  the  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  home 
government,  and  tends  to  visualize  it  as  subordinate  to  the 
greater  one,  functioning  by  its  direction  and  acting  by  its 
authority.  The  fact  that  the  cost  of  local  administration 
is  an  ever-increasing  quantity,  reflected  in  the  annual  tax 
bill,  notwithstanding  the  extension  of  federal  activities, 
provokes  angry  remonstrance  from  the  citizen  but  does 
not  seem  to  arouse  the  need  for  his  return  to  the  old-fash¬ 
ioned  policy  of  control  and  of  close  attention  to  home  af¬ 
fairs.  It  rather  stimulates  him  to  greater  activities  for 
increasing  appropriations  by  the  powers  at  Washington. 
More  roads,  more  policing,  more  sanitation,  more  exten¬ 
sions  of  authority  and  more  money  from  the  national  gov¬ 
ernment  accentuate  his  efforts,  the  states  frequently  join¬ 
ing  in  the  clamor  for  much  of  the  new  legislation.  When 
the  citizen  and  his  local  government  albeit  unconsciously 
co-operate  in  urging  the  Congress  to  become  the  chief  cus¬ 
todian  of  the  sovereign  power,  their  representatives  heed 
the  request  and  the  work  of  centralization  goes  on.  The 
states  continue  to  function  and  will  doubtless  do  so  indef¬ 
initely.  But  their  lines  of  distinction  are  becoming  more 
illegible  as  Washington  becomes  more  and  more  the  uni¬ 
versal  capital  and  county  seat.” 

SOUND  VIEWS  OF  PRESIDENT  HARDING. 

While  it  may  be  little  surprising,  it  is  certainly  pleasant 
to  recall  President  Harding’s  warning  against  centraliza¬ 
tion.  He  says : 

“We  must  combat  the  menace  in  the  growing  assump¬ 
tion  that  the  State  must  support  the  people,  for  just  gov¬ 
ernment  is  merely  the  guarantee  to  the  people  of  the  right 
and  opportunity  to  support  themselves.  The  one  oustand- 
ing  danger  of  today  is  the  tendency  to  turn  to  Washington 
for  the  things  which  are  the  tasks  of  the  duties  of  the 
forty-eight  Commonwealths  which  constitute  the  United 
Sates.” 


(in 


If  this  Union  is  to  be  preserved  the  citizens  of  the  re¬ 
spective  states,  states  without  which  the  Union  could  not 
exist,  must  stand  up  squarely  and  strike  yeoman  blows  for 
the  fanes  of  Democracy,  for  individual  liberty,  for  local 
self-government  and  for  home  rule. 

GOVERNMENT  INTERFERES  WITH  PRIVATE 

RIGHTS. 

Another  great  principle  which  our  forefathers  laid  down 
for  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  the  Nation  was  that  the 
government  should  not  interfere  with  the  citizen  in  the 
management  of  his  private  and  domestic  affairs.  They  held 
that  there  were  limits  to  the  authority  of  the  government 
in  dealing  with  the  citizen  and  that  there  was  a  line  over 
which  governmental  authority  should  not  intrude.  They 
said  that  there  were  fields  of  business  and  of  private  con¬ 
duct  which  were  clearly  and  unmistakably  beyond  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  legislation,  and  to  which  neither  the  police 
power  of  the  state  nor  the  nation  could  be  rightfully  ex¬ 
tended.  They  did  not  deny  that  a  state  mig’ht  enact  all 
needful  legislation  to  preserve  the  public  order,  morals, 
health  and  safety,  but  they  did  most  solemnly  affirm  that 
there  were  constitutional  rights  which  could  not  be  in¬ 
vaded  by  the  government,  and  they  held  that  the  legisla¬ 
ture  might  not  under  the  guise  of  protecting  the  public 
intersts,  arbitrarily  interfere  with  private  business  or  im¬ 
pose  unusual  and  unnecessary  restrictions  upon  personal 
habits  and  lawful  occupations. 

WHAT  CITIZEN  MAY  EXPECT  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  some  of  the  things  that 
the  citizen  may  justly  look  to  the  government  to  do 
for  him.  He  has  a  right  to  expect  the  government  to  se¬ 
cure  him  equality  of  opportunity,  to  protect  him  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  fruit  of  his  labor,  to  maintain  law  and 
order  and  to  see  that  justice  is  done  to  all.  We  can  look 
to  our  government  to  give  the  citizens  a  fair  and  full 
opportunity  in  the  race  of  life,  but,  of  course,  we  must 
not  expect  the  government  to  do  for  the  citizen  what  he 
should  do  for  himself  and  be  the  happier  and  better  for 
doing.  It  is  equally  as  true  that  the  citizen  has  no  right 
whatever  to  expect  the  government  “to  act  as  his  guardian 
and  to  require  it  to  assume  his  responsibilities  and  obliga¬ 
tions,  correct  his  misfortunes,  discharge  his  dutes,  cancel 


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his  debts,  supply  his  needs  and  guarantee  the  success  of 
his  business  pursuits.” 

While  the  government  may  rightfully  exercise  certain 
functions  of  supervision  and  regulation  over  the  business 
of  the  country,  yet  the  government  must  not  hamper  the 
growth  and  prosperity  of  business.  The  government  may 
rightfully  demand  full  publicity,  it  may  rightly  prevent 
unfair  trade  practices,  and  it  has  the  right  to  prevent  in¬ 
justice,  but  “its  functions  of  regulation  and  supervision  do 
not  properly  extend  to  the  imposition  of  the  business  dis¬ 
cretion  of  government  officials  against  the  judgment  of 
those  experienced  in  the  business.”  Our  system  of  gov¬ 
ernment  was  established  in  order  that  the  merchant  and 
manufacturer,  the  mechanic  and  the  laborer,  might  each 
be  left  to  pursue  and  provide  for  his  own  interests  in  his 
own  way,  untrammeled  by  burdensome  and  unnecessary 
legislative  restrictions.  Much  of  the  legislation  of  re¬ 
cent  years  is  Socialistic,  and  if  continued  will  destroy  the 
American  ideal  of  personal  liberty. 

GOVERNMENTAL  INTERFERENCE  WITH  BUSINESS 

The  Government  is  now  poking  its  nose  and  reaching  its 
long  arm  so  extensively  into  the  private  business  opera¬ 
tions  of  individuals  that  initiative  is  being  paralyzed  and 
progress  impeded.  One  prominent  Montgomery  business 
man  told  me  only  a  few  days  ago  that  because  of  the  many 
burdensome  laws  and  bureaucratic  regulations  affecting 
his  line  of  business  he  was  compelled  to  employ  an  extra 
bookkeeper  and  use  his  entire  time  in  meeting  the  re¬ 
quirements  of  the  Government.  Another  told  me  that  the 
Government  has  interfered  so  much  with  his  business  and 
has  given  him  so  many  instructions  as  to  running  it,  that 
he  had  reached  the  point  where  he  would  gladly  turn  his 
business  over  to  the  Government  in  return  for  a  pension  of 
$50  a  year.  Another  told  me  that  he  looked  anxiously  at 
every  stranger  who  came  into  his  store  fearing  that  he 
might  be  some  officious  government  agent  with  tidings  of 
additional  laws  and  regulations  and  desiring  to  peep  further 
into  his  private  affairs. 

Certainly  the  time  has  come  to  put  a  stop  to  all  unneces¬ 
sary  and  harmful  governmental  interference  with  the  pri¬ 
vate  affairs  of  the  citizen.  He  must  have  some  relief, 
and  unless  it  comes  soon  the  country  will  suffer  a  depres¬ 
sion  long  to  be  remembered. 


(13) 


OLD  FASHIONED  CUSTOMS  OUT  OF  STYLE 


While  I  have  called  your  attention  seriously  to  the  ap¬ 
proaching  destruction  of  certain  venerable  landmarks  in 
our  government,  I  do  not  forget  that  there  are  other  land¬ 
marks  of  less  consequence  which  are  also  being  destroyed. 
And  if  in  lighter  vein  I  should  mention  a  few  of  them,  I 
ask  your  indulgence. 

We  are  getting  away  from  a  great  many  old-fashioned 
customs.  In  the  old  days  people  “went  in  washing/’  No¬ 
body  would  think  of  doing  this  nowa-days  because  every 
body  “goes  in  bathing.”  The  old-time  swimming  hole 
with  its  shady  banks,  snags,  frogs  and  muddy  water,  where 
we  jumped  in  as  nature  made  us,  does  not  appeal  any  long¬ 
er.  To  properly  enjoy  ourselves,  we  must  go  to  some 
fashionable  swimming  pool,  lined  wtih  white  tile  and 
marble,  where  the  water  has  been  chlorinated  by  experts 
and  examined  hourly  by  bacteriologists,  where  life-pre¬ 
servers  are  handy,  and  where  each  swimmer  must  be 
sprinkled  with  the  perfumes  of  Arabia  before  entering 
the  pool. 

We  do  not  hear  much  of  “breeches”  today,  either,  but  all 
males  wear  “trousers”,  and  instead  of  keeping  them  neatly 
pressed  by  insertion  between  the  mattress  and  springs  at 
bedtime,  they  must  be  sent  to  a  pressing  club  for  scientific 
steaming  and  to  get  the  creases  mathematically  straight. 
We  also  miss  the  “gallus”  which  was  superseded  by  the 
“suspender”  and  we  realize  that  the  latter  will  soon  give 
way  to  the  belt.  That  old-fashioned  meal,  “supper,”  which 
we  enjoyed  so  much  when  we  were  boys,  is  almost  a  thing 
of  the  past.  “Lunch”  has  taken  the  place  of  dinner,  and 
dinner  has  replaced  supper.  Only  old  fogies  have  “supper” 
nowadays. 

Take  for  instance  the  service  for  the  solemnization  of 
matrimony.  A  good  many  of  our  splendid  women,  forget¬ 
ting  what  St.  Paul  said  and  not  having  a  proper  concep¬ 
tion  of  wifely  obedience,  do  not  like  to  be  asked  “to  obey,” 
and  flatly  decline  to  do  so.  The  men  are  bearing  up  under 
this  very  well,  though  a  great  many  of  the  men  are  re¬ 
taliating  and,  in  the  marriage  ceremony,  are  declining  to 
“endow”  their  wives  with  all  their  ^worldly  goods.”  and 
hence  these  two  ancient  expressions  are  seldom  heard  now. 

In  the  old  days  when  a  young  man  went  courting  he 
first  ascertained  if  it  was  agreeable  for  him  to  pay  his  ad¬ 
dresses  to  the  young  lady  of  the  house.  If  it  was  all  right 


(14) 


he  would  drive  up  to  his  sweetheart’s  mansion  in  a  digni¬ 
fied  phaeton  drawn  by  a  thoroughbred,  tie  his  horse  to  a 
hitching  post,  walk  quietly  in,  remove  his  hat  and  pati¬ 
ently  wait  an  hour  or  two  while  his  love  dressed.  Nowa¬ 
days  all  that  is  quite  different:  the  modern  gallant  cranks 
up  father’s  ‘lizzie,’  hits  it  up  about  50  miles  an  hour,  drives 
up  in  front  of  his  lover’s  bungalow  with  much  screeching 
of  brakes  and  rattling  of  tin  fenders,  keeps  his  seat,  blows 
the  horn  violently  four  or  five  times,  and  gets  out  of  pa¬ 
tience  if  the  fair  Juliet  fails  to  rush  out  at  once. 

In  music  there  has  also  been  a  marked  change.  We  no 
longer  gather  around  the  family  piano  or  organ  and  sing 
the  sweet  songs  of  old.  Annie  Laurie,  Sweet  Alice  Ben 
Bolt,  Old  Folks  at  Home,  Juanita,  Old  Black  Joe,  When 
You  and  I  Were  Young  Maggie,  and  the  Last  Rose  of 
Summer,  are  rarely  heard  nowa-days  except  as  a  begrudg¬ 
ed  encore.  The  music  that  delighted  our  fathers  has  given 
way  to  tunes  more  pleasing  to  the  modern  ear  and  we  now 
have  the  Teddy  Bear  Blues,  Hot  Lips,  Apple  Sauce,  Mister 
Gallagher,  Li’l  Liza  Jane,  Kitten  on  the  Keys,  I’ll  See  You 
in  Cuba,  Cuddle  Up  Blues,  and  so  on. 

If  poor  old  Terpsichore  could  stop  eating  ambrosia  and 
nectar  for  a  few  minutes  and  look  down  on  us  from  Olym¬ 
pus  she  would  be  quite  surprised  at  our  modern  dance 
steps.  The  stately  minuet,  the  graceful  waltz,  the  polka, 
the  scottische,  the  reel,  the  quadrille,  and  the  horn  pipe 
have  all  been  out-lawed  by  polite  society,  though  the  waltz 
is  making  a  feeble  struggle  for  life.  Any  one  who  would  be 
bold  enough  today  to  attempt  any  of  these  old-fashioned 
dances  on  a  modern  ball  room  floor  would  probably  be  re¬ 
quested  to  “get  out  of  the  way”  or  “to  speed  ’er  up,”  and 
if  he  persisted  would  doubtless  be  the  laughing-stock  of 
the  evening.  These  fine  old  steps,  which  were  really  dances 
of  beauty  and  grace,  have  disappeared  and  in  their  place 
we  have  the  one-step,  the  tango,  the  toddle,  the  Boston,  the 
fox-trot,  the  bunny-hug  and  such  like,  and  unless  one  is 
quite  well  acquainted  with  these  modern  steps  she  may 
expect  a  glorious  time  as  a  wall-flower. 

DOES  NOT  CONDEMN  ALL  CHANGES 

If  time  permitted  I  could  tell  you  of  other  marked 
changes  in  literature,  in  art,  in  commerce  and  in  the  social 
life,  all  “illustrating  a  general  revolt  against  the  authority 
of  the  past,”  but  what  is  true  of  the  subjects  I  have  touched 
upon  is  also  true  of  the  latter  things. 

(15) 


Of  course,  I  do  not  condemn  all  these  changes  which  I 
have  mentioned  in  lighter  vein,  for  we  can  not  expect, 
either  in  government  or  social  life,  that  the  ideals  and  pleas¬ 
ure  of  the  past  shall  suit  us  today  and  fit  in  with  our  ever- 
changing  and  complex  civilization. 

ANCIENT  LANDMARKS  MUST  STILL  GUIDE 

But  presumptively  the  lessons  of  the  past  are  true,  and 
as  we  move  forward  into  the  future  to  that  better  day  yet 
to  dawn  for  men  and  nations,  let  us  look  now  and  then  to 
the  “ancient  landmarks”  of  our  fathers  with  gratitude  and 
thanksgiving  that  they  yet  stand  to  guide  us  on  the  true 
course. 


(16) 


